Pluralism

Brief History of Pluralism

Pluralism is a political paradigm, which refers to the patterns that emerge in a political setting in order to determine the distribution of power and influence. Moreover, pluralism provides a view that politics and decision-making processes are mainly concentrated in the government’s setting. However, many non-governmental groups use the resources at their disposal to influence these processes (Hirst 57). In pluralism, every critical question concerns the nature of influence distribution and that of power in the political environment. In addition, it is considered d that different groups put much effort to maximize their political interests. In the process of achieving power, the lines of conflict become multiple and constantly shift due to the fact that power is a continuous process of bargaining between the competing parties. Demosisto is one of the groups in the modern century that has originated due to the concept of pluralism. In this case, its main aim is to encourage localism by first persuade individuals to embrace multi-ethnicity in order to improve the standards of living and promote equality in Hong Kong. Based on the argument of its political leader Joshua Wong, the party advocates a strategy to determine the sovereignty of Hong Kong in the year 2047. Therefore, since Demosisto is meant to encourage and mold the leadership credentials of the young population, it can be argued that one of its weaknesses emanates from its name. The reason is that numerous people are facing difficulties in their comprehension and pronouncing. Moreover, its emphasis on multi-ethnicity may receive high resistance from the local communities of Hong Kong.

The Demosisto as a party was established officially in the year 2016 under the guidance of the former Secretary-General of the Students Association of Hong Kong Nathan Law, former Scholarism spokesman Oscar Lai as its vice-chairperson, and Joshua Wong as its Secretary-General. Some of the founding party members include teacher Ng Mei-Ian and Shu Kei.

It is worth noting that the initial request was to register Demosisto as a company. The reason was that the police required explaining whether it was in compliance with the Basic Law to push the self-determination of Hong Kong as it tried to register as a company. In fact, Demosisto was unable to establish its own bank account and was dependent on the member’s individual accounts. In other words, these are some of the shortcomings that Demosisto has encountered until it was registered in the year 2016.

Analysis: History of Pluralism That Led To Demosisto

Insiders

Demosisto political group of Hong Kong is one of the best examples that can be used to comprehend the concept of pluralism. Moreover, it is a perfect example of pluralists who advocate the existence of diversification for the people of Hong Kong as well as a democracy (Hirst 57). Demosisto supports conducting a referendum in order to determine the sovereignty of Hong Kong in the years after 2047 when the principle One Country-Two Systems expires. Demosisto literally translates as standing for democracy or for the will of the people.

In order to be considered as a member of Demosisto, an individual should possess the mentality that each member of society should be entitled to their own space of existence. It is a difficult task to be part of a pluralistic movement when someone does not approve of the neutrality and diversification of society. Another characteristic that a person willing to embrace pluralism should have is that of a free spirit. In order to possess a high level of incorporation in the society as well as integrate it in one’s heart, a free-spirited position is required. Incorporating the existence of each group in the society is a complicated process and cannot be implemented by any individual, but by a person who is ready and willing to fulfill this task. A key characteristic that a person requires in order to be involved in pluralism is the heart of acceptance and tolerance. These characteristics help a person to value and encourage the existence of all people in society.

Goals of Demosisto Pluralism

Demosisto as an illustration of pluralism and democracy focuses on self-initiation. Moreover, its main emphasis is made on a party that is based on movement to act as an extension of social activism. It suggested introducing a system of the petition that would provide a way for political dialogue between the political party and the residents. Moreover, it supports a bottom-up approach, which allows the residents to construct their own proposals towards social change in society (Hirst 57). In addition, the movement insists on self-standing aiming at making a character form of Hong Kong embracing multiplicity. Demosisto proposes to build an evaluation of Hong Kong’s present and future imagination based on its historical experiences. It also liberates the people from the governance of the Communist Party of China, which they consider dictating and imperialistic. However, releasing the people, according to the party’s priorities, does not require encouraging populism, which acts like an emotionally appealing trap to differ ‘us’ and ‘them’.

Autonomy is another mission of Demosisto. In other words, it aims at promoting the value of multiplicity and social progressiveness. In addition, it is beneficial to support multiplicity and social progressiveness due to the fact that it provides protection to vulnerable individuals in society. Additionally, Demosisto aims at establishing progressive policy in order to urge the corresponding authorities to fulfill their responsibility, which is to provide the people social protection when they need it. It additionally focuses on the encouragement of the Hong Kong residents to discuss as well as form a consensus on their future arrangements politically, economically, and socially after 2047. Another mission of Demosisto is determination. The party requires a right for self-determination for the people of Hong Kong. According to their missions, Demosisto aims at launching a project of ten years to organize a ‘Charter of Hong Kong’. They intend to shape a new constitution that is self-governing and ensures socio-political order in the city. In order to introduce the policy of determination, it suggests that the people of Hong Kong start to deliberate and fight for their rights referring to the city’s sovereignty.

Demosisto considers that the legitimacy of the Basic Law is eroding systematically, and the high degree of autonomy in the government has become a rhetoric farcical picture of the political incompetence problems in their daily lives. Demosisto aims at injecting new energy into the democratic movement of Hong Kong. A new momentum, as well as a blueprint, is required to start a new democratic movement that is empowered by the new narratives and goals that would brighten the future of the political lives of the people. Demosisto provides a new way to follow in order to achieve democratic self-determination of the people living in Hong Kong. Consequently, the party has integrated three main principles that are supposed to release them from the regime of democratic handover and enter into the democratic movement for self-determination of the people of Hong Kong.

According to the statements of Demosisto, the main aim is to surpass the tried political framework and reshape the story in order to focus on the future of Hong Kong. They consider that democratic movement focuses its energy on achieving universal suffrage. After every five years, however, the people slumber under political reform in perpetuity (Hirst 57). It is therefore not possible to organize a civil society towards the aim of achieving a breakthrough in vision and in strength without first addressing the core problem of the basic law and the doctrine of ‘one country two systems”. In order to achieve the breakthrough, a reformation of the main question is required. Release of the people tied by the political reformation framework and refocusing on the public discourse would be the first step towards achieving political autonomy (Thomas). According to Demosisto, it is additionally important to frame the democratic campaign concerning future political systems in order to stop the autocratic regime.

Assumptions, Expectations and General Thinking

According to the existing considerations, pluralism aims at achieving political as well as social and economic unification in society. The illustration of pluralism, as portrayed by Demosisto, tends to follow the belief of achieving strong political democracy within the society. Consequently, it is necessary to start a political movement that concerns itself with the achievement of a democratic society and secures the political future of Hong Kong in the future (Hurst 13). It can be generally asserted that Demosisto is the most promising movement towards achieving the type of democracy that will save Hong Kong of the autocratic regime in the future. An urge to be a member of Demosisto is an actual task, especially due to the set political goals. Achieving the ability of self-initiative, self-determination, gaining a self-stand and acquiring autonomy, as stated by their mission, is not a mere political goal, but one of the most relevant actions towards reaching democracy.

Demosisto is a political group that was formed by the former members of the Hong Kong Federation of Students and Scholarship, a student activist group that attracted considerable support from the students in Hong Kong. The massive assistance was due to the awareness among the students in Hong Kong about the formation, existence, and goals of Demosisto. Many people became supporters and members of Demosisto through attaining enough awareness concerning the missions and visions of the party in the rallies that were held and massively attended by the students. The individuals, who attended these political meetings, realized their purpose and aim, which was the country’s democracy and powerful political base.

Therefore, it is possible to state that the people were attracted to Demosisto in order to participate in the movement that promised to ensure political liberation in Hong Kong. First, the mission statement of Demosisto contains the most areas that are meant to encourage people to fight for democracy (Hirst 57). Therefore, it was the power of the mission and vision statement that greatly attracted Hong Kong people to Demosisto. In addition, the description of goals and objectives influenced their decision to stay and become a member of Demosisto in order to witness the successive revolution it raised within the Hong Kong society in the direction of achieving political liberation. However, the citizens are lured to the party using their political personnel (Barry). It is worth noting that its leaders are young and promising due to their ability to encourage the people fighting for political democracy. It is considered that Demosisto possesses the main tool for achieving political liberation in Hong Kong.

The party and its members receive various views and considerations from their non-members. In the political setting, for example, the members of Demosisto are a group of people that organize a corresponding campaign in order to assist its political candidate during elections and ensure his victory (Hirst 57). It is obvious that their outsiders do not understand the aims of the corresponding movement. Consequently, many people who are not members of Demosisto, consider that it is a political party. Additionally, people, who are not the members of the given group, assume that Demosisto’s aim and objective is to gain enough popularity and many supporters in order to ensure the victory of its candidates in the respective political competitions. However, it is an expected possibility as the chairman of Demosisto won a seat in the legislature. Moreover, he has been accused of inciting civil disobedience due to his participation in the Umbrella protests in 2014. ‘Civil disobedient’ is the expression that many outsiders tend to use while describing the members of Demosisto.

Comparison

Pluralism is sometimes confused with the elite and Marxism social paradigms of power. Reviewing all the paradigms, it is considered that the average citizens cannot exert influence in the government decisions because they are either incapable or are unwilling to act in a corresponding way. Additionally, all the paradigms support the existence of the influential, well-funded, and well-channeled group to assist in introducing major political or governmental changes. Elitists, however, believe in the existence of a small group in the society that acts as decision-makers and rulers as well as performs major political functions. In addition, they outline the presence of a smaller group that is passive and marginalized regarding political issues (Hirst 57).

Marxists, on the other hand, believe that decision-making processes are driven by the socio-economic forces that are responsible for introducing the agenda, structure choices and ensure that the interests of a given system determine outcomes of a political setting (Chan 885). It is, therefore, evident that the association of pluralism to the two paradigms is appropriate. However, a comparison of advocacies reveals that they differ in their views concerning the society, where pluralism supports the society as a whole and the others adhere to certain groups.

Despite the fact that pluralism encourages people to reach the state of political democracy, it develops considerable disintegration in society. For example, there were cases when Demosisto was involved in political defiance and disobedience. Concerning the leaders of this party, a certain number of them were formerly associated with the Umbrella Revolution protests in September 2014 (Norman). Nathan Law, the chairman of Demosisto party, was among three students who were arrested for storming a public square during the September protests in 2014. Being involved in such a situation of unrest portrayed an extreme level of political rebellion to the outsiders and termed the Demosisto as a political rebellious group. Although participation in the conflict might not have been pluralistic, the insiders did not consider the act as illegal but as a dramatic occurrence in the process of self-expression.

It requires more time to achieve democracy through pluralism. All the interests, preferences, and needs of every society member are incorporated into the corresponding framework. Therefore, more time is required to replace the areas that are incorporated. In the case of Demosisto, the superior government or power holders are not willing to grant the freedom that they promote (Cheung web). Due to the fact that the Party’s principle is to respect the interests of all the groups in the society, Demosisto has to endure the resistance because they allow the existence of other forces that oppose their achievement (Kliot & Stanley 56). Therefore, there arises massive chaos and unrest in the process of achieving democracy, which affects the stability of people in society.

Language

Demosisto is a new student party that derived its name from two Greek words Demos (People) and the Latin American word Sisto (stand in an effort) aimed at supporting the Chinese people to resist suppression. The official language that is currently used is Chinese since its headquarters are in Hong Kong. However, its leaders should know and understand other languages, such as English, Spanish, etc., since they will have to communicate with people from different countries who are interested in telling their stories.

Evaluation

The agenda of the Demosisto group is unclear but its main aim is to support the people and advocate for a new referendum after the expiry of the current system agreement. One of the greatest challenges that Demosisto is currently facing is the fact that its combination of words may not assure the successful start. In this case, according to the numerous complaints, it is difficult to pronounce the name, and some people argue that it may not be grammatically correct. In fact, the leader of the organization and some other Facebook users acknowledged this fact on their accounts and agreed that the name was complicated for the common people. Moreover, they state that they are searching for possible ways to solve the current situation. Consequently, a number of Facebook pages were established using the name of the party after people had announced some of the challenges they were incurring with it.

Due to the establishment of the Demosisto party, some other parties were obliged to respond in a similar manner in Hong Kong, especially relating to those individuals who followed the New Power Party entrance into politics as well as other third parties in Taiwan. In other words, the remaining issue is that some leaders continue to question whether some new political formations may result in the disintegration of the pan-Democratic camp, which provides the possibility for pro-Beijing movement.

In addition, Demosisto has defined that there is a registered game by an unnamed organization that possesses the name of the political party. Moreover, it is not clear whether the registration of the game that revolves around the politics in Hong Kong has any connection to the group’s application to the Registry of the company, which is awaiting its approval. In the meantime, Demosisto is currently struggling to receive donations due to the fact that it is unable to open a bank account because it is facing numerous rejections.

However, if Demosisto, as a political party, emphasizes the necessity to deal with the economic inequalities coupled with the need for progressive politics in their manifesto, then it may be considered that this group will rely on a center-left political stance. In addition, based on the issue of ethnonationalism, its members have strategized themselves as people who are advocating localism, but their charter emphasized the need to embrace multiplicity. Due to the given policy, such a public stance may cause retaliation from the local community.

Conclusion

Pluralism might be a convenient framework for achieving democracy while preserving the diversity of society. However, numerous facts prove that it is more unreliable than efficient. In order to choose a more convenient and stable way of achieving democracy as well as equality, the social change agents should consider the situations that may hinder the expected performance of the set framework and adjust them correspondingly in order to ensure their efficiency. In the case of pluralism, it will be beneficial if the principle of preserving diversity is modified to suit the goals of the entire group. The example of modification would include filtering of the interests that are incorporated in the given framework. However, ignoring the interests of the unsupportive groups in society, the proponents of pluralism could achieve democracy faster and in a more convenient way. In cases when the interests of opposing organizations, which intend to preserve their own significance while denying other members equality, are not considered, the party will have more possibilities to achieve its goals as the existing barriers are reduced.